Rural people should get the same drinking water as the PM and President: H K Patil

A shower and Western loos in rural areas, where public toilets are hard to come by? Rural development and panchayat raj minister H K Patil is determined to make it a reality in Karnataka. “The derision my plan evokes has provoked me to execute it seriously. When former PM Indira Gandhi mooted the concept of giving houses to the poor, she was ridiculed and asked whether she would construct them in the sky as land was difficult to get. Wasn’t the programme implemented?” he asks in an interview to STOI.

When attempts to build indoor toilets in rural areas has faced resistance, will a bathroom-toilet be welcome?

A small bathroom will make a qualitative difference to the lives of people in rural areas. I want to provide a bathroom-cum-toilet with a shower. Even today many men and women take baths outside their houses. I am also looking at providing western-style commodes for the public toilets because many people in their 70s and 80s, who have been drinking water with high fluoride content, suffer from arthritis and cannot squat. We need 56 lakh toilets and in the next eight months, six lakh have to be constructed…